Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Michael
Flynn, the national security adviser to you resigned late
Monday over revelations about his potentially illegal contacts with the
Russian ambassador to the United States, and his misleading statements
about the matter to senior your administration officials.

Do you have any idea why they feel so ashamed? I do!

Should I remain in bed, leave my country or fight against the dragon?

( see also the story by Wolfgang Hampel, ' Betty MacDonald: Nothing more to say ' )

It's a very special day today - Valentine's Day.We are sending all our love to the international Betty MacDonald fan club fans in 40 countries.Enjoy a wonderful Valentine's Day with your family and friends.It's not only Valentine's Day!Our very much beloved Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli celebrates his birthday today.Mr. Tigerli seems to be reluctant to share his age but as Betty
MacDonald's very intelligent mother Sydney said: Age is only a number!There are several personalities who seem to be young forever for example our famous Mr. Tigerli.We hope you'll enjoy the delightful Mr. Tigerli story by Betty MacDonald fan club honor member, author and artist Letizia Mancino very much.We think of Eurovision Song Contest 2017.It would be wonderful if Betty MacDonald fan club honor member Mr. Tigerli would sing with very beautiful Natalie.We'll see what happens.Again - Happy Birthday deaerst Mr. Tigerli in the name of Betty MacDonald and Mr. Tigerli fans in 40 countries.

I agree with Betty in this very witty Betty MacDonald story Betty MacDonald: Nothing more to say by Wolfgang Hampel.

I
can't imagine to live in a country with him as so-called elected
President although there are very good reasons to remain there to fight
against these brainless politics.

Michael
Flynn, the national security adviser to President Trump, resigned late
Monday over revelations about his potentially illegal contacts with the
Russian ambassador to the United States, and his misleading statements
about the matter to senior Trump administration officials.

Flynn
stepped down amid mounting pressure on the Trump administration to
account for its false statements about Flynn’s conduct after The
Washington Post reported Monday that the Justice Department had warned
the White House last month that Flynn had so mischaracterized his
communications with the Russian diplomat that he might be vulnerable to
blackmail by Moscow.In a letter to Trump, Flynn said he had
“inadvertently briefed the Vice President Elect and others with
incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian
ambassador. I have sincerely apologized to the president and the vice
president.”

Don't miss these very interesting articles below, please.

Lately,
it appears Trump has gone back into the field to drag in a whole new
bunch of State contenders.

My favorite is Representative Dana
Rohrabacher of California, a person you have probably never heard of
even though he’s been in Congress since the 1980s and is currently head
of the prestigious Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats.

I think the future dinosaur flatulence will be the behaviour of 'Pussy' and his very strange government.

Poor World! Poor America!

Don't miss these very interesting articles below, please.

The most difficult case in Mrs.Piggle-Wiggle's career

Hello 'Pussy', this is Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.

You
took calls from foreign leaders on unsecured phone lines, without
consultung the State Department. We have to change your silly behaviour
with a new Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle cure. I know you are the most difficult
case in my career - but we have to try everything.......................

Besides him ( by the way the First Lady's place ) his 10 year old son was bored to death and listened to this 'exciting' victory speech.

The old man could be his great-grandfather.

The
boy was very tired and thought: I don't know what this old guy is
talking about. Come on and finish it, please. I'd like to go to bed.Dear 'great-grandfather' continued and praised the Democratic candidate.

This
is incredible! I'll You get what you pay/vote for and Trump is the
epitome of this ideology. America I won't feel bad for you because you
don't need my sympathy for what's coming but I am genuinely scared for
you. 'Forgive them lord for they know not who they do' or maybe they do
but just don't care about their future generations who will suffer for
this long after the culprits have passed away.

In 2006, Palin obtained a passport[88] and in 2007 traveled for the first time outside of North America on a trip to Kuwait. There she visited the Khabari Alawazem Crossing at the Kuwait–Iraq border and met with members of the Alaska National Guard at several bases.[89] On her return journey she visited injured soldiers in Germany.[90]That's the reason why very intelligent and brilliant Sarah Palin knows the World very well. Sarah and ' Pussygate ' will rule America and the World - what a couple.

Wolfgang
Hampel's Betty MacDonald and Ma and Pa Kettle biography and Betty
MacDonald interviews have fans in 40 countries. I'm one of their many devoted fans.

Many Betty MacDonald - and Wolfgang Hampel fans are very interested in a Wolfgang Hampel CD and DVD with his
very funny poems and stories.

We are going to publish new Betty MacDonald essays on Betty MacDonald's gardens and nature in Washington State.Tell us the names of this mysterious couple please and you can win a very new Betty MacDonald documentary.

The series premiered on September 3,
1951, the same day as "Search for Tomorrow," and ended on August 1,
1952.

Although it did well in the ratings, it had difficulty
attracting a steady sponsor. This episode features Betty Lynn (later
known for her work on "The Andy Griffith Show") as Betty MacDonald, John
Craven as Bob MacDonald, Doris Rich as Ma Kettle, and Frank Twedell as
Pa Kettle.

Betty MacDonald fan club exhibition will be fascinating with the international book editions and letters by Betty MacDonald.I can't wait to see the new Betty MacDonald documentary.

Michael Flynn resigns as national security adviser

Michael
Flynn, the White House national security adviser, arriving at a
swearing-in ceremony of White House senior staff in the East Room of the
White House on Jan. 22. (Andrew Harrer / Pool/European Pressphoto
Agency)

Michael
Flynn, the national security adviser to President Trump, resigned late
Monday over revelations about his potentially illegal contacts with the
Russian ambassador to the United States, and his misleading statements
about the matter to senior Trump administration officials.Flynn
stepped down amid mounting pressure on the Trump administration to
account for its false statements about Flynn’s conduct after The
Washington Post reported Monday that the Justice Department had warned
the White House last month that Flynn had so mischaracterized his
communications with the Russian diplomat that he might be vulnerable to
blackmail by Moscow.In a letter to Trump, Flynn said he had
“inadvertently briefed the Vice President Elect and others with
incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian
ambassador. I have sincerely apologized to the president and the vice
president.”

Military, defense and security at home and abroad.

Flynn
was referring to his disproven claims to Vice President Pence and
others a month ago that he had never discussed U.S. sanctions against
Moscow with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Pence, White House
spokesman Sean Spicer and others, relying on Flynn’s accounts, publicly
defended him and repeatedly declared in categorial terms that sanctions
were never discussed.President Trump accepted Flynn’s
resignation letter and appointed Keith Kellogg, a decorated retired Army
lieutenant general, as acting national security adviser.Flynn’s
resignation — after just 24 days on the job — caps a decorated career
in public service for the retired lieutenant general and intelligence
official.Kellogg is one of three candidates Trump is considering
as a permanent replacement for Flynn, according to a senior White House
official. The other two are David H. Petraeus, a former CIA director
and retired general, and Vice Adm. Robert Harward, a former deputy
commander of the U.S. Central Command.One senior White House
official said that Trump did not fire Flynn; rather, Flynn made the
decision to resign on his own late Monday evening because of what this
official said was “the cumulative effect” of damaging news coverage
about his conversations with the Russian envoy.This
official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the
situation, said Trump does not relish firing people — despite his
television persona on “The Apprentice” — and had intended to wait
several more days before deciding whether to seek Flynn’s resignation.“There obviously were a lot of issues, but the president was hanging in there,” this official said.
“Buying some time was part of the plan, and I think Flynn just figured,
if it’s imminent to the boss, then let’s make it immediate.”Flynn’s
departure just weeks into the Trump administration compounds the
confusion in the National Security Council that is supposed to serve as a
disciplined coordination center for the administration’s handling of
international affairs.Instead, the White House
faces an escalating court fight over an immigration ban aimed at
Muslim-majority countries, has alienated key allies with Trump’s brusque
phone calls to foreign leaders, and seemed so caught off-guard by North
Korea’s recent ballistic missile test that Trump and senior officials
were shown learning of the development on cell phones in full view of
patrons at Trump’s Mar-a Lago resort. Flynn was
forced out less than a week after it was disclosed that he had discussed
U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador before
Trump was sworn in as president.But Flynn’s undoing was more
directly tied to his inaccurate accounts of those contacts to senior
Trump officials including Pence, who officials said was incensed to
learn that Flynn has not told him the truth.Flynn again denied
that he had discussed the subject in an interview with The Washington
Post last week, only to back away from that statement a day later by
acknowledging, through a spokesman, that while he couldn’t recall
speaking about sanctions he could not rule it out.In fact, U.S.
intelligence and law enforcement officials have said that sanctions was a
main subject of Flynn’s conversation with Kislyak on the day that the
Obama administration announced a series of punitive measures aimed at
punishing Moscow for its meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential
election.U.S.
officials said that Flynn told Kislyak that Moscow should not overreact
to the sanctions, indicating that the two sides would soon be in
position to revisit the matter, presumably in Moscow’s favor.In
conveying that message, Flynn may have broken a law against unauthorized
individuals negotiating with foreign governments over conflicts. He is
unlikely to face legal sanction, however, because that law dates to 1799
and has never been prosecuted.But Flynn’s
departure is unlikely to end the trouble the issue has created for the
Trump administration. The Post reported Monday that then-acting U.S.
Attorney General Sally Q. Yates told the White House counsel last month
that Flynn’s misleading statements to Pence and others made him
vulnerable to blackmail by Russia, whose own government would have known
that sanctions were discussed.The White House
appears to have let its repeated false statements about Flynn stand for
weeks after that notification from Yates, and has yet to account for
what it did with the warning she conveyed. The disclosures about Flynn
have added to the swirling suspicion about the Trump administration’s
relationship with Moscow — suspicion based in part on Trump’s repeated
expressions of admiration for Russian President Vladi­mir Putin.Flynn’s
resignation appears to end the career of a highly decorated U.S.
military intelligence officer, who served repeated tours in Afghanistan
and Iraq but became a polarizing figure in last year’s presidential
campaign.In a speech at the Republican National Convention,
Flynn led vitriolic attacks on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton,
leading chants of “Lock Her Up” and declaring that if he had been even
partly as careless as she was in her handling of sensitive material by
email he would be in jail.Flynn spent last
weekend at Mar-a-Lago with Trump, staffing the president during his
visit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Back at the White House
on Monday, Flynn attended classified briefings, helped orchestrate the
visit of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and led Trump’s morning
intelligence briefing, this official said.Some
of Trump’s political advisers felt Flynn should not be fired in the
midst of intense media scrutiny and calls for his resignation from
Democratic opponents.“Part
of me said, nobody should be firing this guy — not on the day that Nancy
Pelosi said fire this guy,” the official said. “You’ve got hashtag
‘Fire Flynn’ blazing across the Internet by a bunch of Trump
detractors.”But by Monday evening, Flynn had decided he could not survive.“It
was when you feel like you’re looking around the room and asking,
‘Where’s my friend?’” the White House official said. “The Pence thing
was huge. He is not somebody who’s quick to anger. That was very telling
to everybody.”Flynn presented his resignation letter to Trump
roughly around 9 p.m., shortly after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s
swearing-in ceremony in the Oval Office. Trump accepted the letter.“It was a sad moment,” the White House official said.

Philip
Rucker is the White House Bureau Chief for The Washington Post. He
previously has covered Congress, the Obama White House, and the 2012 and
2016 presidential campaigns. He joined The Post in 2005 as a local news
reporter.

Trump’s Radical Anti-Americanism

As the President rejects our foundational principles, all we can turn to is our instinct for shared defiance.

Beate
and Serge Klarsfeld, the couple who did so much to bear witness to the
terrible truths of the Second World War, came to town last week to
introduce their new memoir to an American audience. In it, there is a
photograph that can only be called heartbreaking in its happiness,
unbearable in its ordinariness. It shows an eight-year-old Serge with
his sister and their Romanian-Jewish parents walking along a promenade
in Nice, in 1943, still smiling, still feeling confident, even at that
late date, that they are safe in their new French home. Within a few
months, the children and their mother were hiding in a false closet, as
Gestapo agents took their father to Auschwitz, and his death.

What
the photograph teaches is not that every tear in the fabric of civility
opens a path to Auschwitz but that civilization is immeasurably
fragile, and is easily turned to brutality and barbarism. The human
capacity for hatred is terrifying in its volatility. (The same promenade
in Nice was the site of the terrorist truck attack last year.)
Americans have a hard time internalizing that truth, but the first days
of the Trump Administration have helped bring it home.

Within
two weeks of the Inauguration, the hysterical hyperventilators have
come to seem more prescient in their fear of incipient autocratic
fanaticism than the reassuring pooh-poohers. There’s a simple reason for
this: the hyperventilators often read history. Regimes with an
authoritarian ideology and a boss man on top always bend toward the
extreme edge, because their only organizational principle is loyalty to
the capo. Since the capo can be placated only by uncritical praise, the
most fanatic of his lieutenants end up calling the shots. Loyalty to the
boss is demonstrated by hatred directed against his enemies.

Yet
what perhaps no one could have entirely predicted was the special
cocktail of oafish incompetence and radical anti-Americanism that
President Trump’s Administration has brought. This combination has
produced a new note in our public life: chaotic cruelty. The immigration
crisis may abate, but it has already shown the power of government to
act arbitrarily overnight—sundering families, upending long-set
expectations, until all those born as outsiders must imagine themselves
here only on sufferance of a senior White House counsellor.

Some
choose to find comfort in the belief that the incompetence will
undermine the anti-Americanism. Don’t bet on it. Autocratic regimes with
a demagogic bent are nearly always inefficient, because they cannot
create and extend the network of delegated trust that is essential to
making any organization work smoothly. The chaos is characteristic.
Whether by instinct or by intention, it benefits the regime, whose goal
is to create an overwhelming feeling of shared helplessness in the
population at large: we will detain you and take away your green
card—or, no, now we won’t take away your green card, but we will hold
you here, and we may let you go, or we may not.

This
is radical anti-Americanism—not simply illiberalism or
anti-cosmopolitanism—because America is not only a nation but also an
idea, cleanly if not tightly defined. Pluralism is not a secondary or a
decorative aspect of that idea. As James Madison wrote in Federalist No.
51, the guarantee of religious liberty lies in having many kinds of
faiths, and the guarantee of civil liberty lies in having many kinds of
people—in establishing a “multiplicity of interests” to go along with a
“multiplicity of sects.” The idea doesn’t reflect a “weak” desire for
niceness. It is, instead, intended to counter the brutal logic of the
playground. When there are many kinds of bullied kids, they can unite
against the bully: “Even the stronger individuals are prompted, by the
uncertainty of their condition, to submit to a government which may
protect the weak as well as themselves.”

There
is an alternative view, one long available and articulated, that
America is not an idea but an ethnicity, that of the white Christian men
who have dominated it, granting a grudging or probationary acceptance
to women, or blacks, or immigrants. This was the view of Huck Finn’s
pap, as he drank himself to death; of General Custer, as he approached
Little Big Horn; of Major General Pickett, as he led the charge at
Gettysburg. Until now, it has been the vision of those whom Trump would
call the losers.

As the official
ideology of the most powerful people in the White House, can that vision
of America win? With the near-complete abdication of even minimal moral
courage in the Republican Party, and the strategic confusion of the
Democrats, all that Americans can turn to is the instinct for shared
defiance, and a coalition of conscience, the broader the better, to
counter the chaotic cruelty. (If the Koch brothers have some residual
libertarianism left in them, let them help pay for it.) Few events in
recent years have been more inspiring than the vast women’s marches that
followed the Inauguration, few events more cheering than the
spontaneous reactions to the executive order on immigration, such as the
cabbies’ strike staged after Kennedy Airport seemed to have been turned
into a trap for refugees.

Such
actions are called, a little too romantically, “resistance,” but there
is no need, yet, for so militant a term. Resistance rises from the
street, but also from within the system, as it should, with judicial
stays and State Department dissenters. Opposing bad governments with
loud speech, unashamed argument, and public demonstration is not the
part that’s off the normal grid: it’s the pro-American part, exactly
what the Constitution foresees and protects. Dissent is not courageous
or exceptional. It is normal—it’s Madisonian, it’s Hamiltonian. It’s
what we’re supposed to do.

Democratic
civilization has turned out to be even more fragile than we imagined;
the resources of civil society have turned out to be even deeper than we
knew. The battle between these two shaping forces—between the axman
assaulting the old growth and the still firm soil and deep roots that
support the tree of liberty—will now shape the future of us all. ♦

Adam Gopnik, a staff writer, has been contributing to The New Yorker since 1986.

Review: ‘S.N.L.’ Targets Trump Again, With a Hint of Exhaustion

If
President Trump’s shock and awe attack on truth, decorum and liberal
sensibilities is designed to bludgeon his opponents into submission,
“Saturday Night Live” felt like his latest victim this weekend.

Not
that the show, which has been one of his most outspoken and popular
antagonists, didn’t remain on the attack. Melissa McCarthy reprised her
savage impersonation of Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary,
and Alec Baldwin (in his 17th appearance as host) donned his flaxen wig
and prosthetic jowls to play Mr. Trump in a “People’s Court” sketch
mocking the president’s attempts to have his travel ban reinstated. Kate
McKinnon — who, in a Tatiana Maslany-style
tour de force, also appeared as Attorney General Jeff Sessions and
Senator Elizabeth Warren — played the presidential counselor Kellyanne
Conway trying to seduce her way onto CNN in a “Fatal Attraction” spoof.

But
there was a sense of exhaustion — of “How long can we keep this up?” —
that was made explicit in the court sketch when Cecily Strong, as the
presiding judge, said to Mr. Baldwin’s Trump: “You’re doing too much. I
want one day without a CNN alert that scares the hell out of me.” It was
delivered plaintively, not as a laugh line but as a weary, nervous
plea.

Ms.
McCarthy opened the show as Mr. Spicer, and the news-briefing sketch
was again the high point. Its simple premise — take the thin-skinned
venom and brazen duplicity the Trump administration has exhibited and
render it as naked, schoolyard-bully aggression — was still effective,
coupled with Ms. McCarthy’s absolute commitment.

But
it was even more underwritten than before, name-checking controversies
rather than illuminating them, which has been true of most of the show’s
Trump-related material. In the absence of new ideas, old ones recycled
from last week’s sketch were simply amped up — the wad of chewing gum
was bigger, the weaponized rostrum was now motorized. The physical
attacks on reporters now included an assault with a leaf blower, which
was jolting and kind of fascinating when the machine was pointed at the
face of a reporter played by Ms. Strong, but not so funny when it was
used to blow her skirt up over her head.

Mr.
Baldwin came out as himself for his monologue, which did not address
politics. He finally appeared as Mr. Trump an hour into the show, facing
off against the judges of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
and asking for a reinstatement of the travel ban, plus $725. It was a
routine sketch, briefly enlivened by the appearance of a bare-chested
Beck Bennett as President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, calling Mr. Trump
“my little American happy meal.”

Mr.
Bennett also played the CNN host Jake Tapper in the Conway sketch,
which never quite found its tone and had a queasy edge of sexism, but at
least wasn’t boring. Lying in wait for Mr. Tapper at his apartment, Ms.
McKinnon’s Conway writhed and moaned in her desperation to get back on
TV. (In real life, CNN turned down
the offer of an interview with Ms. Conway last week.) When Mr.
Bennett’s Tapper said, “You’re just going to keep lying,” she replied,
“You need to reach inside me and pull out the truth,” before threatening
him with a kitchen knife.

The episode’s funnier moments were mostly Trump-free. An amusing sketch
in which competing ad agencies pitched a new Cheetos campaign had
political overtones but no overt Trump references. A bit in which Kenan
Thompson and Tracy Morgan played Beyoncé’s twin sons
in the womb was pedestrian, but at least had the pleasurable jolt of
seeing Mr. Morgan. The best moment of the night was when Mr. Baldwin
appeared to flub a line, saying “cookie chillout” instead of “chili
cookout.”

As Mr. Trump’s political fortunes have risen, “Saturday Night Live” has benefited, at least in terms of ratings,
from its perceived status as the official television opposition to him
and, now, his administration. Based on Saturday’s episode, it will be a
hard if not impossible task to keep up for four years, if Mr. Trump
stays in power that long and keeps making news — and outraging much of
the country — at his current rate.

Trump finds the limits of executive power

Check and balance'

"I
am pleased that our check and balance system is working in this
country," Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "It shows that the courts are going
to be there when President Trump uses his power and exceeds his
constitutional authority. I think that is an important message that our
constitutional system will work."

But the President's allies quickly moved to contain the damage and to frame the terms of the political and legal fight ahead.

Arkansas
GOP Sen. Tom Cotton said the order was plainly legal and argued the
courts shouldn't second guess the national security decisions of the
president.

"This
misguided ruling is from the Ninth Circuit, the most notoriously
left-wing court in America and the most reversed court at the Supreme
Court," Cotton said. "I'm confident the administration's position will
ultimately prevail."

The Supreme
Court could still rule in favor of the administration, either on the
merits of the case or the issue of standing of foreigners on whose
behalf the challenge to Trump's executive order was brought by the state
of Washington.

But the possibility
of the nation's highest bench being called upon to clear up a growing
legal imbroglio will also open a new political fight. The Supreme Court
is currently lacking its ninth member owing to the prolonged Washington
standoff following the death last year of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Should
the Court hear the case and split 4-4, the ruling of the 9th Circuit
would be affirmed. That fact alone adds heat to the confirmation duel
looming over the nomination of Trump's first Supreme Court pick, Neil
Gorsuch.

Republicans
now have even more of an incentive to ram the confirmation through the
Senate using the "nuclear option" to sidestep a Democratic filibuster.
Democrats are even less likely to cooperate with a swift process.

The
9th Circuit decision, however, seemed designed to shape the future
arguments about the content of the executive order and the
administration's attempts to significantly stiffen the government's
anti-terrorism campaign.

It went
far further in its ruling than the simple question of the stay on the
travel ban imposed by a lower court, taking pains to dismantle the
administration's assertion that the travel ban was vital to protecting
Americans against an influx of foreign terror threats from the seven
named nations, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and Syria.

"The
Government has pointed to no evidence that any alien from any of the
countries named in the Order has perpetrated a terrorist attack in the
United States," the ruling said.

"Rather
than present evidence to explain the need for the Executive Order, the
Government has taken the position that we must not review its decision
at all."

Several options

The stinging ruling presented the President with several options, including an immediate appeal to the Supreme Court.

Trump
also has the option of going back to the drawing board and coming up
with a new way to impose "extreme vetting" restrictions he says are
necessary.

But it seems certain he will
not take the route since to do so would involve not only admitting the
bitter taste of a high stakes legal defeat but repudiating the combative
win-at-all-costs attitude that animates his character.

"The
President has lost so he is now in a state of limbo. For weeks perhaps
even months his order is going to be stayed," Alan Dershowitz, professor
emeritus at Harvard Law School, told CNN's Erin Burnett. "He claims
that this is a threat to the national security of the United States. If
he is right, then he has only one option -- rescind the order, start
from scratch ... write a new order that will both protect the security
of the United States and avoid constitutional challenge."

Dershowitz
added: "But it would require him to admit that he is wrong. So now
there is a clash between the ego of the President and the national
security of the United States."

Did Neil Gorsuch distance himself from Donald Trump? It's complicated

Now we have the debate over the debate on federal judges, and one judge in particular.If there’s ever been a time when a Supreme Court
nominee criticized—or at least appeared to criticize—the president who
picked him, I don’t recall it.The reported comments by Neil Gorsuch, in private
meetings with senators, will only boost his standing, in my view, by
casting him as a champion of an independent judiciary.But the remarks fueled what was already a storm of
criticism of President Trump for taking on the Seattle judge who blocked
his temporary travel ban. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and
Washington Post all led with Gorsuch’s comments yesterday, and there
have been endless segments on CNN and MSNBC.The president, not one to let a slight go unanswered,
used Twitter to hit back at Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut
Democrat who went public with what Gorsuch had told him.Trump also got into a Twitter spat with Chris Cuomo over the CNN anchor’s interview with Blumenthal.My initial reaction when I heard about this was that
perhaps Blumenthal was betraying a personal conversation. But then I
realized that Gorsuch is savvy enough to know that such remarks would
become public. The senator told MSNBC he had Gorsuch’s permission to
report on their conversation. And Gorsuch made similar remarks to other
senators.The New York Times
said Gorsuch “privately expressed dismay on Wednesday over Mr. Trump’s
increasingly aggressive attacks on the judiciary, calling the
president’s criticism of independent judges ‘demoralizing’ and
‘disheartening.’”Washington Post:
“President Trump’s escalating attacks on the federal judiciary drew
denunciation Wednesday from his Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, who
told a senator that the criticism was ‘disheartening’ and
‘demoralizing’ to independent federal courts.”But Trump told reporters yesterday, “You
misrepresented his comments totally. His comments were misrepresented
and what you should do is ask Senator Blumenthal about his Vietnam
record that didn’t exist after years of saying it did. So ask Senator
Blumenthal about his Vietnam record.”In 2010, the Times disclosed that while candidate
Blumenthal had claimed to have served in Vietnam, he actually served in a
Marine Reserve unit in Washington.After Chris Cuomo interviewed Blumenthal on CNN’s
“New Day,” Trump tweeted: “Chris Cuomo, in his interview with Sen.
Blumenthal, never asked him about his long-term lie about his brave
‘service’ in Vietnam. FAKE NEWS!”Cuomo responded by playing a clip of him asking
Blumenthal about Trump’s criticism that “you misrepresented your
military record in the past,” adding: “The president with all due
respect is once again off on the facts.” (Blumenthal ducked the question
and Cuomo didn’t press the point.)Bottom line: What did Gorsuch say, and what did he mean by it?Blumenthal apparently added the word “abhorrent” as
his own commentary. But a Gorsuch spokesman confirmed that the judge
said he was disheartened, and Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who is
working with the White House on the nomination, said Gorsuch used the
words disheartened and demoralizing.But Ayotte also said, in a version pressed by Sean
Spicer, that Gorsuch was not referring to any particular case and was
expressing general concern for the independence of the judiciary.This is how it’s done, folks. Neil Gorsuch sent a
signal—an unambiguous signal—that he will be an independent justice,
even when ruling on cases involving the president who chose him. And he
wanted that message out.But he has the camouflage of saying he was speaking generally rather than specifically criticizing Trump.Now he gets to do it again, in front of the cameras, at his confirmation hearing.

Trump's Supreme Court pick dispirited by president's tweets

Donald
Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, on Wednesday described as
"demoralizing" and "disheartening" the U.S. president's Twitter attacks
on a judge who suspended Trump's travel ban on seven Muslim-majority
countries, a spokesman for Gorsuch said.Gorsuch's
comments came as a federal appeals court in San Francisco was expected
to decide in coming days on the narrow question of whether U.S. District
Judge James Robart acted properly in temporarily halting enforcement of
Trump's ban.A Republican
strategist hired by the White House to help guide Gorsuch's nomination
through the U.S. Senate said that Gorsuch, himself an appeals court
judge, used those words when he met with Democratic Senator Richard
Blumenthal.Trump, who took office
on Jan. 20, took to Twitter over the weekend to condemn the Friday night
order by Robart that placed on hold the president's Jan. 27 temporary
travel ban on people from the seven countries and all refugees. Trump
called Robart a "so-called judge" whose "ridiculous" opinion
"essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country." Trump's
administration appealed Robart's ruling to a three-judge federal appeals
panel, which heard oral arguments on Tuesday. Presidents
are usually hesitant to weigh in on judicial matters out of respect for
the U.S. Constitution, which ensures a separation of powers among the
president's executive branch, Congress and the judiciary. The
Republican-led Senate on Wednesday confirmed immigration hardliner
Republican Senator Jeff Sessions to be the next attorney general despite
strong Democratic opposition.Trump
says his executive order aims to head off attacks by Islamist
militants. The order, the most divisive act of Trump's young presidency,
sparked protests and chaos at U.S. and overseas airports. Critics said
the ban unfairly targeted people for their religion."I
don't ever want to call a court biased," Trump told hundreds of police
chiefs and sheriffs from major cities at a meeting in a Washington hotel
on Wednesday. "So I won't call it biased. And we haven't had a decision
yet. But courts seem to be so political."

Trump
nominated Gorsuch on Jan. 31 to succeed conservative Justice Antonin
Scalia on the nine-member Supreme Court. Scalia died a year ago this
month.
Blumenthal, a member of
the Judiciary Committee that will hold a confirmation hearing on
Gorsuch, said the nominee had a responsibility to reassure Americans
that he would be an open-minded and independent jurist by going public
with his concerns about Trump.PRESIDENTIAL POWERSThe appeals court decision on whether to reinstate the ban, will be just a first step in a fast-moving case.
The
courts will ultimately have to address questions about the extent of
the president's power on matters of immigration and national security.
Traditionally, judges have been extremely cautious about stepping on the
executive branch’s authority in such matters, legal experts say,
although some note that the implementation of Trump's order presents
unique issues.
Trump's order
barred travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen
from entering for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days, except those
from civil war-torn Syria, who are subject to an indefinite ban.
Also
at issue is whether the order violates a provision of the U.S.
Constitution that prohibits laws favoring one religion over another,
along with relevant discrimination laws. PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVES
Trump,
a Republican, has made extensive use of presidential directives that
bypass Congress and has appeared to be taken aback by legal challenges
to his travel order.
He praised a
federal judge in Boston who earlier ruled in his favor on the travel ban
as a "highly respected" jurist whose findings were "perfect."
Last
year, Trump accused Indiana-born U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel of
bias in overseeing a lawsuit against one of Trump's businesses, Trump
University, because of his Mexican heritage.
Democrats
and other critics have called Trump's comments toward the judiciary an
attack on a core principle of American democracy: that the courts are
independent and uphold the rule of law.
At
the meeting with law enforcement officials, Trump read from the law he
cited to justify the travel ban, quoting it in fragments and sprinkling
in bits of interpretation. He said the law clearly allowed a president
to suspend entry of any class of people if he determined them to be a
detriment to national security.
The
matter is likely to go to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is
ideologically split with four liberal justices and four conservatives
pending Senate action on Trump's nomination of Gorsuch, a conservative
jurist.
U.S. State Department
figures showed that 480 refugees had been admitted to the United States
since Robart's order went into effect, including 168 on Wednesday. Of
those admitted, 198 were from war-torn Syria.
(Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner, Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey,
David Shepardson and Richard Cowan in Washington; Writing by Will
Dunham, Frances Kerry and Timothy Gardner; Editing by Howard Goller and
Peter Cooney)

Donald Trump’s Tweets About a Judge Find a Critic in an Unlikely Place: China

A protest outside the Supreme
Court in Washington last month against President Trump’s executive
order banning travel to the United States from seven majority-Muslim
countries.Credit
Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

HONG KONG — President Trump’s public criticism of a federal judge who blocked his immigration order
was condemned across the political spectrum as an assault on judicial
independence. Now the president is being taken to task from an
unexpected place: China.

Judge He Fan of the Supreme People’s Court of China published a scathing blog post
about Mr. Trump’s reaction to Judge James L. Robart’s recent ruling
blocking key parts of his executive order that barred visitors from
seven predominantly Muslim countries. Judge He said that Mr. Trump had
breached the principle of an independent judiciary, and that people who
attacked judges were “public enemies of the law.”

“Even
if you control the armed forces and have nuclear weapons,” Judge He
wrote in the post, published on Sunday, “your dignity has been swept
away and you are no different than a villain.”

The
notion of a Chinese jurist remarking on the danger he believes Mr.
Trump poses to the separation of powers may seem, at first blush, to
smack of hypocrisy. In China, courts are firmly under the command of the
Communist Party. Last month, the chief justice publicly condemned the notion of judicial independence, warning judges not to fall into the “trap” of “Western” ideology.

But
the harsh public face presented last month by the chief justice, Zhou
Qiang, obscures what is happening on his watch. Judges like Mr. He
admire the American legal system and study it to improve China’s rules,
such as how to handle plea bargains or what to do with evidence obtained
illegally, said Susan Finder, an American scholar who publishes the Supreme People’s Court Monitor, a blog that focuses on China’s top court.

Ms.
Finder said that Judge He was an avowed “Scotus junkie” who translates
books about the Supreme Court of the United States and works on the
court’s judicial reform committee. Works that have been translated by
Judge He include “Making Our Democracy Work,” by Justice Stephen G. Breyer, and “Becoming Justice Blackmun,” by Linda Greenhouse, about former Justice Harry A. Blackmun.

“The Supreme People’s Court looks more at the U.S. than you would ever think,” said Ms. Finder, who is a scholar at the School of Transnational Law
at Peking University’s campus in the southern city of Shenzhen. “They
are looking to try to improve the prestige of the Chinese judiciary.”

Unlike
the United States Supreme Court, which has nine justices, China’s
highest court has hundreds of judges, including those, like Judge He,
whose main focus is outside the courtroom.

In his post, which includes an image of a caustic Twitter post
in which Mr. Trump referred to the “so-called judge” who blocked his
immigration order, Judge He also takes aim at violence against judicial
officials in China, bringing up a case of the killing of a retired
jurist in the southern region of Guangxi.

In
doing so, Judge He, who could not be reached for comment, may be using
Mr. Trump’s assault on the independence of America’s judiciary to safely
and indirectly level some criticism against China’s own system.

“That could be part of the message,” said Ms. Finder, who has known Judge He for about three years and has written for his blog.

Follow Michael Forsythe on Twitter at @PekingMike.Kiki Zhao contributed research from Beijing.

Get news and analysis from Asia
and around the world delivered to your inbox every day with the Today’s
Headlines: Asian Morning newsletter. Sign up here.

A version of this article appears in print on February 8, 2017, on Page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: Chinese Judge Blasts Trump Over Judiciary. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe

The White House released a list
of 78 terror attacks around the world on Monday, saying most of them
did not get sufficient attention from the media.

The release came after President Donald Trump appeared to accuse the
media of covering up terrorist attacks by not reporting them.

"You’ve seen what happened in
Paris and Nice. All over Europe it's happening," the president told
military commanders at Central Command.

"It’s gotten to a point where it's not even being reported. And in
many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it.
They have their reasons, and you understand that.”Mr Trump offered no evidence for the claim.

Sean
Spicer, Mr Trump's spokesman, later said the president was accusing the
media of "under reporting" rather than not reporting terrorist attacks.Before issuing the list, he said: "There’s several instances. There’s
a lot of instances that have occurred where I don’t think they've
gotten the coverage it deserved."Protest gets blown out of the water and yet an attack or a foiled attack doesn't necessarily get the same coverage."The list includes incidents like a truck massacre in Nice that killed
dozens and received widespread attention, as well as less high-profile
incidents in which nobody was killed.One of the listed incidents was the fatal stabbing of British tourist Mia Ayliffe-Chung
in Australia in August 2016, which Queensland Police specifically
determined to be a murder case rather than a terrorist attack.

Show more

"Networks are not devoting to each of them the same level of coverage
they once did," a White House official said. "This cannot be allowed to
become the 'new normal.'"It was Mr Trump's latest salvo
against the news media, a favorite target for derision that he says
broadly underestimated his chances during the presidential campaign. He
has kept up the attacks since his January 20 inauguration.

Al Tompkins at The Poynter Institute, a Florida-based journalism school, dismissed Mr Trump's criticism."To suggest that journalists have some reason not to report ISIS
attacks is just outlandish," Mr Tompkins said, using an acronym for
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Mr Trump
made the accusations while addressing a gathering of troops in Florida
during his first visit to the Central Command headquarters.The president said he wanted to allow into the United States people
who "want to love our country," as he defended his controversial travel
ban.Mr Trump reaffirmed his support for Nato before military leaders and
troops, and laced his speech with references to homeland security. But
he did not directly mention the travel ban case.

The
president told the troops and commanders that "we need strong
programmes" so that "people that love us and want to love our country
and will end up loving our country are allowed in" and those who "want
to destroy us and destroy our country" are kept out.He continued: "Freedom, security and justice will prevail."We will defeat radical Islamic terrorism and we will not allow it to take root in our country. We're not going to allow it."

'Trump' replaced with 'Steve Bannon' in web browser extension

A new
Google Chrome extension replaces the word "Trump" with "Steve Bannon" as
part of an effort to highlight the influence that the White House chief
strategist has on the president, writes Chris Graham.American Bridge, a Democrat-aligned super PAC, produced the internet
browser extension to show the "power" Donald Trump has ceded to his
controversial right hand man.

“It also comes with a warning: Anyone who thought the news about the
Donald Trump administration was terrifying should exercise extreme
caution when reading about the reckless and bigoted policies ordered by
President Bannon,” American Bridge Vice President Shripal Shah told
Business Insider.Mr Trump has become increasingly
frustrated over reports suggesting Mr Bannon is the power behind the
throne, with the New York Times bearing the brunt of many of his
attacks. Read the full article here.

Are you saying that Mister Tigerli is in love with a new girl, Letizia?

You’ve got it, Betty.

And what’s happened to his beautiful Russian girl?

He
loves her. She was with him for two whole weeks when I was in the USA.
It’s just that Tigerli sometimes needs a bit of a change!

But he’s already got three girls.

He can still imagine having another.

But four would be enough!!

Not for the Casanova-cat. Oh Betty why is there in every cat a cock?

And why is there in every man a cock, Letizia?

Why, Betty?

My 'dear' Bob said that three hens is only the “hors-d’oeuvre” for a cock

Am I only an “hors-d’oeuvre”?

Who then is his new flame?

“Natalie Horler!”

Surely not! Natalie of Cascada?

Exactly Betty, she is Mister Tigerli’s new love.

A television love then?

She sings beautifully and she is wonderful to look at!

That cat has taste!

Let’s wait and see if our Mister Tigerli feels the need of a top-model or a tennis star?

Is there also a good woman vet on the list?

Whatever for? Tigerli is a picture of health, Betty. Love keeps him young!!

In
any case Tigerli is a clever cat: he is good at keeping his women
occupied. You pay the rent and for his keep, Renate works in his rose
garden, the Russian girl strokes him and licks his fur and Natalie…?

Natalie takes care of his entertainment!

A cat with a good artistic sense!

A
good artistic sense? Our Mister Tigerli? But Betty, what about my art? I
hardly get to do any painting in my studio these days because I have to
protect him from breathing in the turpentine fumes!

I thought it was his studio?

Yes, yes… but in the time before Mister Tigerli (b.m.t) I painted many oil paintings, but now when I sometimes do paint the pictures are covered with cat hairs!

You paint using a mixed technique, Roman Nose! Very modern!

But Betty, no one in a hundred years would believe that I had ever painted those pictures!

You’re right. The art historians will attribute all your works to Mister Tigerli!

What bad luck!

Be
happy about it. That will be the only way that your pictures will come
into the museums. Cat art is very sought after! When art is not
innovative it has no chance!

Betty, why am I not a cat?

But now I want to know, Letizia, does Tigerli wants to get to know Natalie in person?

Naturally, and at once! He wants to practice with Natalie.

Does he want to chase mice with her?

No, he wants to sing with her!

What a wonderful idea!

You’re right Betty! In 2017 he wants to put on a performance with her!

No!!!

Yes, at the Eurovision Song Contest.

They will win!

He is already practicing the Eurowalk at home.

What is the Eurowalk?

Taking long strides in very high-heeled shoes.

That must be exhausting for a cat!

And how! He walks so slowly when we walk together round the house, he needs a whole hour to mark out his small territory.

We? You also?

No I don’t do that. Naturally he marks his area alone. But I’m there as his escort!

Yes, someone could kidnap him. He’s so famous!

At the beginning he was really scared of Natalie!

That’s how a great love can start to grow!

Oh the cat is cheeky enough. But he was afraid of her shoes!

He’s such a small chap.

He’s not so small! Have you seen the height Natalie’s heels?

Sky scrapers.

You’ve said it Betty. A woman becomes three meters tall.

A woman would have no trouble biting the heads of the men.

Have you seen how strong the soles are? Just a kick from Natalie and Tigerli would be dead as a doornail!

That would be such a tragedy. These shoes are really weapons against men!

Absolutely!

One kick from these shoes could put a man’s delicate lower regions permanently out of action!

Better that spraying pepper in their eyes!

Then
be careful when you both meet Natalie, Letizia. It would be best if you
carried Mister Tigerli on your back. Do you also wear high heels?

Unfortunately not, Betty. I wear only ballerina type shoes.

Then Tigerli will not be able to look into Natalie’s eyes!

That is a problem!

He’ll only be able to look at Natalie’s breast!

But that will certainly charm him.

And also her.

I have once had a delicate cat bite on my breast and I can only recommend that to any woman.

What a pity that Mister Tigerli doesn’t live in Seattle!

It is a pity, Betty! Your Bob and Don wouldn’t have been against it!

Happy Natalie!

Tigerli and Natalie Horler together will certainly win the next Eurovision Song Contest!

Yes I’m sure of it!

But Tigerli will change the name from “Cascada”.

Why, is he frightened of water?

No, but the name “Cascada” gives an image of water falling down, no
upwards zip. The group would have no chance of winning with that name!

Tigerli is right. What name will he give the group?

“Geyser”! That's good! Very zippy!!

Like when he marks the trees!

With this name Tigerli and Natalie will have no trouble in winning the Song Contest! Do you know which song they will sing?

We
were going to Canada in the summer. “When we are in Edmonton”, I said
to Christoph Cremer, “let’s make a quick trip to Seattle”. And that’s
how it happened. At Edmonton Airport we climbed into a plane and two
hours later we landed in the city where Betty had lived. I was so happy
to be in Seattle at last and to be able to trace Betty’s tracks!

Wolfgang Hampel had told Betty’s friends about our arrival.They
were happy to plan a small marathon through the town and it’s
surroundings with us. We only had a few days free. One should not
underestimate Wolfgang’s talent in speedily mobilizing Betty’s friends,
even though it was holiday time. E-mails flew backwards and forwards
between Heidelberg and Seattle, and soon a well prepared itinerary was
ready for us. Shortly before my departure Wolfgang handed me several
parcels, presents for Betty MacDonald's friends. I rushed to pack the
heavy gifts in my luggage but because of the extra weight had to throw
out a pair of pajamas!

After we had landed we took a taxi to the
Hotel in downtown Seattle. I was so curious to see everything. I
turned my head in all directions like one of the hungry hens from
Betty’s farm searching for food! Fortunately it was quite a short
journey otherwise I would have lost my head like a loose screw!Our
hotel room was on the 22nd floor and looked directly out onto the
16-lane highway. There might have been even more than 16 but it made me
too giddy to count! It was like a glimpse of hell! “And is this
Seattle?” I asked myself. I was horrified! The cars racing by were
enough to drive one mad. The traffic roared by day and night. We
immediately contacted Betty MacDonald's friends and let them know we had
arrived and they confirmed the times when we should see them.

On
the next morning I planned my first excursion tracing Betty’s tracks. I
spread out the map of Seattle. “Oh dear” I realized “the Olympic
Peninsula is much too far away for me to get there.” Betty nodded to me! “Very difficult, Letizia, without a car.”

“But I so much wanted to see your chicken farm”

“My chickens are no longer there and you can admire the mountains from a distance”

But
I wanted to go there. I left the hotel and walked to the waterfront
where the State Ferry terminal is. Mamma mia, the streets in Seattle are
so steep! I couldn’t prevent my feet from running down the hill. Why
hadn’t I asked for brakes to be fixed on my shoes? I looked at the
drivers. How incredibly good they must be to accelerate away from the
red traffic lights. The people were walking uphill towards me as briskly
as agile salmon. Good heavens, these Americans! I tried to keep my
balance. The force of gravity is relentless. I grasped hold of objects
where I could and staggered down.In Canada a friend had warned me that in Seattle I would see a lot of people with crutches.

Betty laughed. “ It’s not surprising, Letizia, walking salmon don’t fall directly into the soft mouth of a bear!”“ Betty, stop making these gruesome remarks. We are not in Firlands!”

I
went further. Like a small deranged ant at the foot of a palace monster
I came to a tunnel. The noise was unbearable. On the motorway, “The
Alaskan Way Viaduct”, cars, busses and trucks were driving at the speed
of light right over my head. They puffed out their poisonous gas into
the open balconies and cultivated terraces of the luxurious sky-
scrapers without a thought in the world. America! You are crazy!“Betty,
are all people in Seattle deaf? Or is it perhaps a privilege for
wealthy people to be able to enjoy having cars so near to their eyes and
noses to save them from boredom?”

“When the fog democratically allows everything to disappear into nothing, it makes a bit of a change, Letizia”

“ Your irony is incorrigible, Betty, but tell me, Seattle is meant to be a beautiful city, But where?”I had at last reached the State Ferry terminal.

“No
Madam, the ferry for Vashon Island doesn’t start from here,” one of the
men in the ticket office tells me. ”Take a buss and go to the ferry
terminal in West Seattle.”Betty explained to me “The island lies in
Puget Sound and not in Elliott Bay! It is opposite the airport. You must
have seen it when you were landing!”“Betty, when I am landing I shut my eyes and pray!”

It’s time for lunch. The weather is beautiful and warm. Who said to me that it always rains here?“Sure
to be some envious man who wanted to frighten you away from coming to
Seattle. The city is really beautiful, you’ll see. Stay by the
waterfront, choose the best restaurant with a view of Elliott Bay and
enjoy it.”“Thank you Betty!”I find a table on the
terrace of “Elliott’s Oyster House”. The view of the island is
wonderful. It lies quietly in the sun like a green fleecy cushion on the
blue water. Betty plays with my words:“Vashon Island is a big
cushion, even bigger than Bainbridge which you see in front of your
eyes, Letizia. The islands look similar. They have well kept houses and
beautiful gardens”.

I relax during this introduction, “Bainbridge” you are Vashon Island, and order a mineral water.

“At one time the hotel belonging to the parents of Monica Sone stood on the waterfront.”“Oh, of your friend Kimi!” Unfortunately I forget to ask Betty exactly where it was.

My mind wanders and I think of my mountain hike back to the hotel! “Why is there no donkey for tourists?” Betty laughs:

“I’m sure you can walk back to the hotel. “Letizia can do everything.””

“Yes, Betty, I am my own donkey!”But
I don’t remember that San Francisco is so steep. It doesn’t matter, I
sit and wait. The waiter comes and brings me the menu. I almost fall off
my chair!“ What, you have geoduck on the menu! I have to try it” (I
confess I hate the look of geoduck meat. Betty’s recipe with the pieces
made me feel quite sick – I must try Betty’s favourite dish!)“Proof that you love me!” said Betty enthusiastically “ Isn’t the way to the heart through the stomach?”

I order the geoduck. The waiter looks at me. He would have liked to recommend oysters. “Geoduck no good for you!”Had he perhaps read my deepest thoughts? Fate! Then no geoduck. “No good for me.”“Neither geoduck nor tuberculosis in Seattle” whispered Betty in my ear! “Oh Betty, my best friend, you take such good care of me!”

I order salmon with salad.

“Which salmon? Those that swim in water or those that run through Seattle?”

“Betty, I believe you want me to have a taste of your black humour.”

“Enjoy it then, Letizia.”During lunch we talked about tuberculosis, and that quite spoilt our appetite.“Have you read my book “The Plague and I”?”

“Oh Betty, I’ve started to read it twice but both times I felt so sad I had to stop again!”

“But
why?” asked Betty “Nearly everybody has tuberculosis! I recovered very
quickly and put on 20 pounds! There was no talk of me wasting away! What
did you think of my jokes in the book?”

“Those would have been a
good reason for choosing another sanitorium. I would have been afraid
of becoming a victim of your humour! You would have certainly given me a
nickname! You always thought up such amusing names!” Betty laughed.

“You’re
right. I would have called you “Roman nose”. I would have said to Urbi
and Orbi “ Early this morning “Roman nose” was brought here. She speaks
broken English, doesn’t eat geoduck but she does love cats.”

“Oh
Betty, I would have felt so ashamed to cough. To cough in your presence,
how embarrassing! You would have talked about how I coughed, how many
coughs!”

“It depends on that “how”, Letizia!”

“Please,
leave Goethe quotations out of it. You have certainly learnt from the
Indians how to differentiate between noises. It’s incredible how you
can distinguish between so many sorts of cough! At least 10!”

“So few?”

”And
also your descriptions of the patients and the nurses were pitiless. An
artistic revenge! The smallest pimple on their face didn’t escape your
notice! Amazing.”

“ I was also pitiless to myself. Don’t forget my irony against myself!”

Betty
was silent. She was thinking about Kimi, the “Princess” from Japan! No,
she had only written good things about her best friend, Monica Sone, in
her book “The Plague and I”. A deep friendship had started in the
hospital. The pearl that developed from the illness.“Isn’t it
wonderful, Betty, that an unknown seed can make its way into a mollusk
in the sea and develop into a beautiful jewel?” Betty is paying
attention.

“Betty, the friendship between you and Monica reminds
me of Goethe’s poem “Gingo-Biloba”. You must know it?” Betty nods and I
begin to recite it:

The leaf of this Eastern treeWhich has been entrusted to my gardenOffers a feast of secret significance,For the edification of the initiate.

Is it one living thing.That has become divided within itself?Are these two who have chosen each other,So that we know them as one?

The
friendship with Monica is like the wonderful gingo-biloba leaf, the
tree from the east. Betty was touched. There was a deep feeling of trust
between us. “Our friendship never broke up, partly because she was
in distress, endangered by the deadly illness. We understood and
supplemented each other. We were like one lung with two lobes, one from
the east and one from the west!”“A beautiful picture, Betty. You were like two red gingo-biloba leaves!”

Betty
was sad and said ” Monica, although Japanese, before she really knew me
felt she was also an American. But she was interned in America,
Letizia, during the second world war. Isn’t that terrible?”

“Betty,
I never knew her personally. I have only seen her on a video, but what
dignity in her face, and she speaks and moves so gracefully!”

“Fate could not change her”

“Yes, Betty, like the gingo-biloba tree in Hiroshima. It was the only tree that blossomed again after the atom bomb!”

The
bill came and I paid at once. In America one is urged away from the
table when one has finished eating. If one wants to go on chatting one
has to order something else.“That’s why all those people gossiping
at the tables are so fat!” Betty remarks. “Haven’t you seen how many
massively obese people walk around in the streets of America. Like
dustbins that have never been emptied!” With this typically
unsentimental remark Betty ended our conversation.

Ciao! I so
enjoyed the talk; the humour, the irony and the empathy. I waved to her
and now I too felt like moving! I take a lovely walk along the
waterfront.

Now I am back in Heidelberg and when I think about
how Betty’s “Princessin” left this world on September 5th and that in
August I was speaking about her with Betty in Seattle I feel very sad.
The readers who knew her well (we feel that every author and hero of a
book is nearer to us than our fleeting neighbours next door) yes we, who
thought of her as immortal, cannot believe that even she would die
after 92 years. How unforeseen and unexpected that her death should come
four days after her birthday on September 1th. On September 5th I was
on my way to Turkey, once again in seventh heaven, looking back on the
unforgettable days in Seattle. I was flying from west to east towards
the rising sun.

About Me

Betty MacDonald Fan Club, founded by Wolfgang Hampel, has members in 40 countries.
Wolfgang Hampel, author of Betty MacDonald biography interviewed Betty MacDonald's family and friends. His Interviews have been published on CD and DVD by Betty MacDonald Fan Club. If you are interested in the Betty MacDonald Biography or the Betty MacDonald Interviews send us a mail, please.
Several original Interviews with Betty MacDonald are available.
We are also organizing international Betty MacDonald Fan Club Events for example, Betty MacDonald Fan Club Eurovision Song Contest Meetings in Oslo and Düsseldorf, Royal Wedding Betty MacDonald Fan Club Event in Stockholm and Betty MacDonald Fan Club Fifa Worldcup Conferences in South Africa and Germany.
Betty MacDonald Fan Club Honour Members are Monica Sone, author of Nisei Daughter and described as Kimi in Betty MacDonald's The Plague and I, Betty MacDonald's nephew, artist and writer Darsie Beck, Betty MacDonald fans and beloved authors and artists Gwen Grant, Letizia Mancino, Perry Woodfin, Traci Tyne Hilton, Tatjana Geßler, music producer Bernd Kunze, musician Thomas Bödigheimer, translater Mary Holmes and Mr. Tigerli.